Erik ten Hag abruptly left his post-match press conference after Manchester United’s game against Bournemouth.
The seemingly harmless question that triggered his departure was related to Manchester United’s disappointing season trajectory following their 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.
In that match, United had to come from behind twice to earn a point, marking their only win in the last seven Premier League games.
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This result placed United seventh in the league, just below Newcastle on goal difference, after Newcastle secured a significant victory over Spurs earlier that day.
With West Ham trailing by only two points and Chelsea six points behind but with two games in hand, Manchester United is facing the possibility of their worst finish in the Premier League era—a record currently held by the team from the 2013/14 season under David Moyes, which also ended in seventh place.
Eric Ten Hag left the Press conference early when Manchester United projected league finish was brought up.
“Erik, there’s a danger you get caught in seventh place,” a reporter began. “You fall below seventh, that would be the worst finish in Premier League history for United. Can you…do you think you’re going to be above…”
Before they could finish, Ten Hag interrupted by saying, “I don’t comment on that question,” before walking out.
“That is not important at the moment,” the manager added. The reported then added: “I tried!”
In another interview, Ten Hag acknowledged that Manchester United’s performance was “not enough” and candidly stated:
“The truth is, today, we didn’t deserve more.”
“Ultimately, if you give them that many opportunities in the first half, as a team, you don’t deserve more. You need to take control, avoid conceding chances, and score your own goals.”
“It’s up to them… In this moment, with all the problems we have, we played to our levels and did very good to our levels.
“But you have to do it throughout the game, right until stoppage-time, and the last four games we dropped points from winning positions. Today, we were in losing positions and fought back.
“But coming into losing positions is totally unnecessary. We lost the ball three times in the areas where we should not lose those balls. They [United’s players] were not always well-organised, especially on the right side where there came some gaps for the opposition to benefit from it. We should have done this better.
“Second half, we took more responsibility and we closed that side… [There were] individual mistakes, we have players who can do better with the ball. On the right side, go with your opponent, that is your job, close it. It’s a small part in it, it’s about collaboration, but the main part is discipline.”
